Denise is starting the Senior Assistance Project to help this elderly demographic:

“The Senior Assistance project is a non-profit organization designed to assist low-income senior citizens with everyday, non-health related issues.”

The seniors Denise is looking to help are often plagued by financial issues, confused by dealing with government agencies, and sometimes the target of scams. Some of the things that the Senior Assistance Consultant Project will help with are:

• Obtaining credit reports
• Identity theft monitoring
• Dealing with creditors
• Basic budgeting
• Medicare programs, benefits and deadlines
• Insurance co-payments and coinsurances
• Navigating government agencies
• Dealing with junk mail & tele-marketers

Denise has already started serving a few seniors but is looking for ways to finance the organization. She certainly has a market in need, one of her main problems is finding money to pay for the resources necessary to service these needs ( a job that will likely be even more challenging due to the tough economy).

Fund Raising

Business Sponsors

Denise could approach some of the many senior targeted businesses to be sponsors of her organization. This could be a challenge since a lot of the people she services won’t have a lot of extra income to potentially spend on the proudct or service of these businesses. With this in mind, she could target businesses that sell lower cost proucts that might be more affordable to her low-income clients.

Another offer Denise could make to businesses is to offer testimonials from seniors that are helped by sponsorship. The sponsors could use the testimonials as part of thier marketing materials.

Individual Donations

Asking for money from individual donors is different from businesses, since instead of a financial or branding benefit that companies are looking for, individuals are looking for an emotional return on investment. They want to know how the money they give is going to help others so providing emotional examples and proof will help encourage donations.

Leveraging the Internet

One of the ways to do this is to let donors get to know the people they’re helping by telling the story of needy seniors. The Internet is a great tool for this purpose, with the ability to publish interivews, thank you notes, pictures, and videos of people that are helped by the Senior Assistance Project.

She’ll need to get signed releases, giving permission to publish this information, but the time spent on legal compliane will be worth the ability to publish before and after stories and testimonials.

The website should be setup to not only accept donations but also to allow people to sign up to follow the story of seniors. Even if individuals don’t donate right away, people who are signed up for an email list that delivers periodic updates may donate in the future.

A popular approach that’s worked in other fund raising efforts is allowing donors to “adopt” a person in need, perhaps a “adopt a grandparent” campaign?

Government Funds

I don’t know much about getting government money but I’m assuming that one of the qualifications they look for is the ability to demonstrate and quantify the impact on people receiving the benefits. The testimonials speak to the emotional side of this question but I’d also make sure I kept records of the services provided and the outcomes of the assistance.

If you have any suggestions or ideas for Denise about ways to fund the Senior Assistance Consultant Project or any other feedback please leave them in the comments below.